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Friday, December 31, 2010

We here at Booktryst are always on the lookout for the interests of our readers…

By Linda Hedrick

Are you ready to commence with your new year resolutions? Eager to show the world the new you? Perhaps you need some help with expressing the metamorphosis you are going through on your way to your stellar 2011 self. If so, we can help with an area you probably haven’t had time to consider yet – a new font. A font that personalizes your every communication. One that screams your name at first sight. Consider some of these:

For illustrating the bare bones of your conceptions, this font is for you. This isn’t your pirate’s crossbones or your dog's favorite treats, but the anatomist’s dream. Each letter is a work of art on its own. Designed by Bjorn Johansson of Stockholm, he calls this font Typeface Anatomy. Anatomy is an apt choice for book lovers when you consider that the vocabulary of books shares many words with the vocabulary of the body, i.e. spine, foot, back, joints...

Inspired by the capitals of the Baskerville Old Face font, Anthon Beeke fashioned his letters from nude women. The Naked Ladies Alphabet is from the 1970s, but will never be dated as long as the human form remains the same. Published by De Jong & Co. printers in 1970, this alphabet still retains its popularity. (Click on link above for the "making of" video.) Perchance this embodies the spirit you wish to exhibit.

Arjan Benning is a photographer who designed his alphabet using human skin and clothespins. Using these fonts can readily express the pain of writing if the words are just not flowing for you. No need to know exactly what parts of skin are used for each letter, anyone can feel the discomfort just by looking at them. Perfect for any painful communications you must undertake, or just letting everyone know the skinny.

Perhaps you enjoy the thought of expressing yourself through body imagery, but prefer something flirtier, and more feminine. "Speak to me only with thine eyes," you are thinking. Well, we can help you express yourself that way as well. Painstakingly created with false eyelashes, Amitis Pahlevan's Eyelash Font is the one for you! Now you can give them an eyeful in a stylish manner.

If you are a fashionista you are probably looking for a font bodily connected but showing your keen sense of how to dress it. Dutch designer Yvette Yang has created a collage-based font she calls FashionFont. Updating it twice a year, each set also functions as a fashion archive. This font is a shoe-in for fashion devotees.

So, maybe you want something along the fashion lines, but more masculine...something that gets down to the basics. No fear, we have something that reflects the inner you but still protects your privacy: the Jockstrap-font by Pier Gustafson may be just for you! Mr. Gustafson would be happy to design any type of missive you may wish to send out. Wedding invitations, anyone?

Wait! Maybe you are not interested in anything to do with the body. Possibly room decor is your thing. Lucky for you we can help you with that interest as well. The Butler BrosFurniture Font may couch your ideas with the right framework.

All right, maybe we are missing the mark entirely. You want something authoritative, magisterial, official, let's say presidential. The 44th President by Insigne is just the ticket. Like President Obama this font slants slightly to the left, and was designed using some of his handwritten notes. If you choose to buy this font (samples here), proceeds will go to charity. Unlike its namesake, this font won't reverse itself.

If your new year's resolutions include living a greener lifestyle, we have a font that could map your unclouded brainstorms. Rhett Dashwood's Google Maps Typography was designed using aerials shots from - you guessed it - Google Maps. Each letter is an actual place found within the state of Victoria, Australia. Click on each letter below his alphabet on his website to see the actual Google Map and its exact location.

Ah, but we have something as well for the foodies among us. Dip the fruits of your mental labors into caramel. The Karamel Sans CE font was designed by Marta Maštálková, who was awarded The Outstanding Student Design by the Design Centre of the Czech Republic in 2006 for this font. It was created by pouring warm, viscous caramel onto glass in the shape of letters. Sweet! Perfect for oozing those sweet nothings.

We hope that we have assisted you with making your plans for the new year. Whatever your choice might be, we here at Booktryst wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011!

__________

Images courtesy of their respective websites. Top image courtesy of Kathy Barbro.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Old Man Winter went on a quite a rampage in December of 2010. In the U.S., Christmas snow fell on parts of the South for the first time since just after the Civil War. Portions of the Northeastern U.S. got three feet of snow, causing a state of emergency to be declared in six states and closing down major airports, resulting in 4,000 cancelled flights. Even sunny Southern California is being treated to the second wettest December since 1878. Meanwhile in Europe, the U.K. is experiencing the coldest December since 1910, along with record snows and high winds. Is there any way to escape this Winter Wonderland? The answer is yes, if only through the imagination, by falling into some rare books featuring beautiful images of Spring. University of Glasgow Library has created a wonderful online exhibit called Birds, Bees, and Blooms, which is guaranteed to chase away your Winter blues, at least for a little while.

Originally mounted in 2007 to accompany the annual meeting of the British Ecological Society, the exhibition features "a selection of some of the wonderful natural history books now in the care of the Glasgow University Library's Special Collections." The introduction to the show notes that, "As well as often being groundbreaking scientific texts, many of these books are beautifully illustrated, charting advances in graphic art from manuscript illumination through to woodcutting, engraving and etching." For our purposes today, these marvelous color plates supply a much needed breath of Spring to Winter-weary souls.

The avian section of the exhibit features plates from John James Audubon's Birds of America, and illustrations from several of John Gould's works of ornithology, both of which have recently been discussed here on Booktryst. Also in the exhibit are plates from an earlier bird book, Eleazar Albin's A Natural History of Birds of London (1731-1738). This is one of the oldest examples of a lavishly illustrated work of ornithology aimed at the "gentleman reader," rather than the scientist. The book features 306 hand-colored engravings by Albin and his daughter, Elizabeth.

According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Albin was a social butterfly who forged connections with many members of the aristocracy in order to obtain access to their collections of exotic birds. He proudly states in the book's preface that all of the illustrations were drawn from live birds, and entreats his readers to supply him with future specimens: "Gentlemen…send any curious Birds…to Eleazar Albin near the Dog and Duck in Tottenham-Court Road."

The "Bees" section of the exhibition actually cheats a little, including books covering all manner of insects. One of the most interesting is Maria Sibilla Merian's 1679 work, Der Raupen wunderbareVerwandelungundsonderbareBlumennahrung (The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral Food.) Merian was the daughter of a noted engraver, and the granddaughter of a botanical artist. She was taught to paint and draw by her stepfather, who was a well-respected still life painter, particularly known for depicting Dutch flowers. As a naturalist, she was self-taught, and became fascinated with the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly. In this book she presents the stages of development of different species of European butterflies along with the plants on which they fed. Many scholars of her day believed that insects spontaneously generated from decaying mud, but her close observation of the transformation of the butterfly gave lie to that long-accepted notion.

Over 25 years after the publication of her work on the butterflies of the Old World, Merian journeyed to the New World to observe the butterfly species of the newly acquired Dutch colony of Surinam. She and her daughters spent two years in South America recording the flora and fauna of an area of the world then almost completely unknown to Europeans. Her book on the subject, Metamorphosis insectorumSurinamensium (1705), became a classic natural history text at a time when very few women won respect in the scientific world.

Another of Glasgow's entomological treasures is Dru Drury's Illustrations of natural history.Wherein are exhibited upwards of two hundred and forty figures of exotic insects... (1770-1773). Drury was a wealthy silversmith who became fascinated by the insect world. He amassed a collection of over 11,000 specimens from all over the globe, many of which were obtained by travelers and seamen, to whom he paid a sixpence an insect, "whatever the size."

According to the exhibition, the "Illustrations of natural history was published in three parts between 1770 and 1782." The hand-colored copperplate engravings were created from Drury's specimens by Moses Harris, and Drury notes in his preface that "the utmost care and nicety has been observed, both in the outlines, and engraving. Nothing is strained, or carried beyond the bounds nature has set."

The illustrator of the previous volume, Moses Harris, is the author of another volume included in the exhibit, An exposition of English insects ... minutely described, arranged, and named, according to the Linnaean system (1782). Harris was encouraged to pursue a childhood interest in insects by his uncle, a member of the Society of Aurelians, the first organized entomological society in England. According to the Glasgow Library, "Harris wrote several works on insect life and, as an accomplished artist, was responsible for drawing, engraving, and colouring all his own work, maintaining at all times a high standard of accuracy. "

Harris expressed his goal in writing An Exposition of English insects as helping the observer "at first sight of an insect...[to] be capable of not only knowing the class it refers to, but at the same time to what order and section of that class, and this by the wings only." The text includes a color wheel to allow the reader to determine the "variety of teints [sic] that adorn the several parts of insects." The work includes over 50 meticulously-executed hand-colored plates.

Finally, we can't forget the Spring flowers when on our imaginary vacation from Old Man Winter. The Glasgow exhibit includes two especially inspiring botanical titles, filled with magnificent color plates. The first of these is Leonhart Fuchs' De historiastirpiumcommentariiinsignes (Or, Notable commentaries on the history of plants), which was first published in 1542. As said in the show, this "massive folio volume...describes in Latin some 497 plants, and is illustrated by over 500 superb woodcuts based upon first-hand observation... Fuchs relied on the illustrations to be used as the main means for identifying the plants. Over 100 species are illustrated for the first time, many of the specimens probably coming from Fuchs' garden in Tübingen; over a thirty-five year period, he grew many of the plants featured in the work, including the exotics."

Fuchs spent over 30 years compiling his herbal masterpiece, and it was clearly a labor of love. Fuchs expressed his love for the flora of the natural world in this charming fashion: "There is nothing in this life pleasanter and more delightful than to wander over woods, mountains, plains, garlanded and adorned with flowerlets and plants of various sorts, and most elegant to boot, and to gaze intently on them. But it increases that pleasure and delight not a little, if there be added an acquaintance with the virtues and powers of these same plants."

Fuchs was a physician, and was particularly interested in the pharmacological uses of plants. He hoped to educate his fellow medical practitioners on the proper identification of healing plants, a skill which he believed them to be sadly lacking. He stressed the importance of his illustrations and their accuracy: "'a picture expresses things more surely and fixes them more deeply in the mind than the bare words of the text... Each illustration was therefore based upon the appearance of the living plant; furthermore, we have not allowed the craftsmen so to indulge their whims as to cause the drawing not to correspond accurately to the truth."

Our final cure for the Wintertime blues: some images from the one greatest of all scientific periodicals, Curtis's Botanical Magazine. First published in 1787, it continues to this day, and is the oldest periodical in existence to feature color plates, according to the exhibition. Printing the work of the world's best botanical illustrators for over two centuries, its over 11,000 color plates form an amazing visual record of flowers and plants as they were introduced to English gardens. The plates were always drawn from living specimens, and "coloured as near to nature, as the imperfection of colouring will admit." As incredible as it may seem, "the plates were all hand coloured until as late as 1948 when a shortage of colourists forced the periodical to adopt photographic reproduction."

The books included here are just a small sampling from the Birds, Bees, and Blooms exhibition. Exploring some of the other items will prolong the pleasure of your imaginary respite from the chilly scenes of Winter. Just remember that no matter how cold, snowy, and wet you get, this too shall pass. No, really, Winter must end...eventually.__________

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Every year, as January 1 approaches and the excesses of the holiday season begin to catch up with us, people everywhere begin thinking about their health. We resolve to go on a diet and to join a gym, firmly resolved (for a few weeks anyway) to whip ourselves into shape. For assistance with this endeavor, and perennially hopeful that there is some secret, easy way (The 4-hour Body!) to lose weight and stay in shape, we purchase millions of dollars worth of "healthy lifestyle" books. This is not a new phenomenon: people have been purchasing such books for nearly 1,000 years, and have been ignoring their basic advice--SPOILER ALERT! Eat less, exercise more--for just as long.

Medieval Exercise Regime. And you though Pilates was tough.

One of the earliest works to focus on the healthy lifestyle was the Taqwîm al-sihhah (Almanac of Health) by the 11th century Iraqi physician and Christian monk Ibn Butlan (died ca. 1038). One of the few upsides of the Crusades was the introduction into Western Europe of medical and scientific knowledge from Arab and Islamic scholars, which augmented considerably the knowledge handed down from the Greeks Galen and Hippocrates. The Tacuinum Sanitatis Medicina, as it was titled in Latin, was one of the most popular non-religious manuscript works. The wealthy, then as ever, had the means and the leisure to seek ways of preserving their life and health; peasants did lots of physical labor and could only afford to eat vegetables, so those lucky devils had no weight-gain worries. The upper classes were quite willing to spend large sums on illustrated manuscripts that could serve as the guide to a longer and more vigorous life.

Tacuinum Sanitatis explains and illustrates the six things necessary for good health, as outlined in its introduction: "treatment of the air which touches the heart," "right employment of food and drink," "right employment of motion and rest," "protection of the body from too much sleep and from sleeplessness," "the right ways to increase and to constrict the flow of humours," and "the right training of one's own personality being moderate in joy, hatred, fear and anguish." In other words, moderation in all things.

More than 200 appealing and lively illustrations show men and women cultivating and harvesting food, tending and slaughtering livestock, hunting, making wool and linen clothes, dancing, and sleeping. The description beneath each picture gives the qualities and benefits of the item or practice, as well as any potential harmful side effects and the appropriate remedy for these. For example, drunkenness is cited for its helpful quality of forgetting one's cares and relieving pain, with vomiting (depicted in the following miniature) given as the remedy for any related excess.

With the introduction of printing, Tacuinum Sanitatis was available to a wider audience, with woodcuts replacing the hand-painted miniatures. As one can see from the examples below, the medieval audience lacked our modern sqeamishness about bodily functions. The editio princeps (first printing) appeared in 1531, and the book enjoyed continued popularity through the remainder of the century.

TMI, thankyouverymuch

A humanist guide to good health was produced in the mid-16th century, by the Englishman Sir Thomas Elyot. His Castell of Helth "was a popular, sensible treatise on healthful living, with sound and practical advice on the recognition of the commoner symptoms of disease, as well as what to do about them." It provides the reader with suggestions for a proper diet (both to maintain health and ameliorate afflictions), discusses the curative properties of various herbs, and gives specific information about diagnoses, even down to the inspection of urine. According to Elyot, partridge is easier on the digestion than goose, and we should limit our intake of melons, cucumbers, and dates, whereas onions, eaten with meat, make it easier to sleep.

This work also has a tangential connection with the history of music because it contains one of the earliest references to the sackbutt, an early version of the trombone. The reference, however, is not to the sackbutt as an instrument for making sound, but rather as an appliance that, when blown through with sufficient energy, is capable of relieving problems of the bowels. Elyot says that "the entrayles [can be regulated] by blowynge . . . or playenge on the Shaulmes, or Sackbottes, or other lyke instrumentes whyche doo requyre moche wynde." (Sadly, we do not have an illustration demonstrating this technique). A courtier in the service of Henry VIII, Sir Thomas Elyot (1490?-1546) was a close friend of Sir Thomas More and of Thomas Cromwell, both of whom met an unhappy political fate that Elyot, though endangered, managed to avoid.

Holbein's portait of Elyot

In the 18th century, we find a contribution from the French chemist and physician Louis Lemery (1677-1743), physician to the king of France, member of the Royal Academy, and son of the famous pharmacist and chemist Nicholas Lemery. His Traité des Alimens was originally published in Paris in 1702 and first printed in English two years later as A Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, both Animal and Vegetable: Also of Drinkables. The work is divided into three sections, the first on the effects on one's constitution of various fruits, vegetables, and spices; the second on flesh, fowl, and fish; and the final section on drink. Lemery believes that what one eats is a key to health and that moderation and a balanced diet (AGAIN!) are advised (although he qualifies this by noting that our earliest ancestors were vegetarians and healthier for being so). Obviously addressing a French readership, he cautions against overindulgence in frog meat, and he comes out in favor of water and tea as beverages, while noting like a true Frenchman that wine is also healthful when taken in moderation, and the same is true of coffee and chocolate, although he warns that excesses will cause sleeplessness.

John Arbuthnot, physician and satirist

The English were not to be upstaged by the French in this area. John Arbuthnot (1667-1735), physician to Her Majesty Queen Anne, published An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments and the Choice of them, according to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. In which the Different Effects, Advantages, and Disadvantages of Animal and Vegetable Diet are Explained. Arbuthnot's study of diet is moderate and sensible (Again with the moderation! Sheesh!), particularly for his day. After discoursing on the mechanics of digestion, he discusses the properties of acidic and alkaline vegetable and animal food. In general, Arbuthnot recommends a light, balanced, and varied diet washed down with cold water. Alchohol, tea, and coffee must be kept to a minimum, although phlegmatic constitutions require some stimulus, and cocoa is not noxious. The author maintains that diet should be tailored to the individual constitution; a vegetarian diet, for example, is not wholesome for everyone, but works well for those inclined to be bilious.

Epicure and eccentric William Kitchiner

My favorite title in this genre--and really one of my favorites of all time--is The art of invigorating and prolonging life, by food, clothes, air, exercise, wine, sleep, &c., or, The invalid's oracle : containing peptic precepts, pointing out agreeable and effectual methods to prevent and relieve indigestion, and to regulate and strengthen the action of the stomach and bowels ... To which is added, The pleasure of making a will. Really covers all the bases and, unlike most lifestyle guides, acknowledges that despite the health diet and exercise, one day you are going to die, so you might as well face up to it and make the proper preparations. The brainchild of epicure and writer William Kitchiner (1778-1827), it contains the same basic advice as the hundreds of thousands of others produced from ancient times to the present: eat and drink in moderation, exercise regularly, guard against weight gain, and get enough sleep. Kitchiner was the author of the phenomenally popular work The Cook's Oracle, which provided inspiration to many aspiring domestic goddesses, among them Mrs. Beeton, the Victorian Martha Stewart.

In addition to chapters on "Reducing Corpulence," "Siesta," "Clothes," "Influence of Cold," "Air," "Exercise," and "Wine" (which he recommends but finds too expensive), the Invalid's Oracle, as it was popularly known, includes his Peptic Precepts, further described as "pointing out agreeable and effectual methods to prevent and relieve indigestion, and to regulate and strengthen the action of the stomach and bowels." These range from a relatively pleasant, or at least harmless, mint pill for mild indigestion to harsh and most unappealing purgatives.

An especially delightful feature of this section is the reprinted menu of a Parisian restaurant, dated 1820. Kitchener, who advocated a diet of beef, mutton, and more beef (a forerunner of the Atkins Diet), includes this as an example of the horrifying things foreigners will eat; the modern reader is struck rather by how appetizing the dishes--most of which can be found on the menu of any modern Parisian bistro--sound when compared to the relentless parade of boiled meat urged by the author. The final section accepts that all this good advice is only postponing the inevitable, and encourages the reader to put his mind at ease by making a will and getting his affairs in order. Ironically, Kitchener died suddenly and rather mysteriously the day before he was to change his own will to disinherit his "undeserving" son.

And so we face another season of resolutions and good intentions, still hoping that someday, someone will come up with something a little easier and more fun than "eat and drink in moderation, exercise, and be sure to get enough sleep." I'm holding out for "Eat Chocolate, Drink Champagne, Never Gain Weight, and Live Forever." Now that would be a bestseller.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Australian Black Swan From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gould or Henry Constantine Richter.(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

The recent sale of a first edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America for $11.5 million made it the most expensive printed book in history. In fact an article in The Economistonline estimates that, adjusted for inflation, "five of the ten highest prices ever paid for printed books were paid for copies of Birds of America." Those two items must have Victorian ornithologist John Gould, known as "The British Audubon," spinning in his grave.

John Gould was the most ambitious of all Victorian ornithologists, combining a shrewd and uncompromising business sense, with a sharp eye for specimens, and a sharper one for artistic talent. In his own time, as he would have been the first to inform you, Gould was just as famous, and more financially successful, than Audubon.

The Emu From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gouldor Henry Constantine Richter.(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

John Gould was the son of an ambitious gardener, who through hard work and diligence became the foreman of the Royal Gardens at Windsor. Gould learned two things from his father: a love of the natural world and a belief that a man could rise above his station through sheer determination.

The Beautiful Grass-Finch,From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gouldor Henry Constantine Richter.(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

From one of his father's fellow gardeners Gould learned the art of taxidermy. Skill at preserving birds and animals was highly prized among Victorians, and some said his passion for it verged on an obsession. In any case, Gould set up his first business in Windsor as a taxidermist, and quickly won recognition for his ability to make his subjects look "natural." He became so adept at the trade that he was commissioned to stuff a giraffe for King George IV.

The Nankeen Night Heron,From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gouldor Henry Constantine Richter.(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

Gould's chance to advance beyond taxidermy came in 1827, when the newly founded Zoological Society of London held a contest to hire its first director and curator. Despite having almost no formal education, John Gould entered and won the position. In 1830 the Society acquired a large collection of bird skins from the Himalayan region of Asia.

The Australian Cassowary,From John Gould's The Birds of Australia, 1840-1848.The illustration is by either Elizabeth Coxen Gouldor Henry Constantine Richter.(Image Courtesy of University of Glasgow Library.)

These exotic specimens, many never before documented, gave Gould the idea of publishing an illustrated guide depicting the rare birds. This became his first published work, A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–1832). It should be noted that although Gould was credited as author, the text was written mostly by the secretary of the Society, Nicholas Aylward Vigors, and the lithography was done by primarily his wife, Elizabeth Coxen Gould, based on John Gould's original sketches. This became a pattern with Gould throughout his career. He repeatedly took sole credit for accomplishments that were in fact a team effort.

One of Edward Lear’s illustrations for John Gould’s A Monograph of the Ramphastidae,or Family of Toucans.(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The other unsung contributor to Gould's first book was Edward Lear. In 1830 Lear published the first two folios of Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, a ground-breaking work of ornithology for several reasons: it was the first bird book published in the large folio size, the first on a single family of birds, the first in which all of the specimens were drawn from life (at the Parrot House of London's Zoological Gardens), and one of the first to use the relatively new process of lithography, rather than engraving, for illustrations. Alas for Lear, while his work was an artistic triumph, it was also a financial failure. He spent too much time obsessively perfecting his work, and not enough selling subscriptions and collecting payments.

But Lear's business failure was Gould's opportunity. He not only hired Lear to work for him, he appropriated Lear's format and style as his own. Thus all of Lear's innovations were soon attributed to the more successful Gould. (Save for the fact that Gould often used preserved specimens rather than live birds as his subjects.) Lear taught the lithography process to Elizabeth Gould, and drew all of the backgrounds for her illustrations. None of his work was credited.

Macrocercus ararauna (Blue and Yellow Maccaw)from Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,or Parrots by Edward Lear.(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

The relationship between Lear and Gould has been called "seven years of exploitation," in an online exhibit on Lear's ornithological illustrations from Cornell's University's Albert R. Mann Library. According to the exhibit, Lear created ten complete plates for Gould's 1834 work, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans, with no acknowledgement whatsoever, and with his signature actually having been erased from the plates in the second edition. In total Lear contributed to six of Gould's books.

Detail from Edward Lear's illustration of a Raven (Corvus corax)from Volume III of John Gould's The Birds of Europe.(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

John Gould was by anyone's estimation a master of the business of books. He deserves immense credit as one of the nineteenth century's greatest natural history publishers. Driven and prolific, he produced 15 major works on birds, containing over 3,000 color plates, and covering every major continent save Africa. Additionally, he wrote over 300 scientific articles and many smaller books. If he had been content to be remembered as an ornithologist and publisher, his legacy would have been untarnished.

Macrocercus aracanga (Red and Yellow Maccaw), from Edward Lear's Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae,or Parrots.

(Image Courtesy Of Albert R. Mann Library.)

But John Gould's desire to be held in esteem as an artist and writer caused him to needlessly take credit where credit was not due. Upon Gould's death in 1881, the usually affable Lear wrote, "He was one I never liked really, for in spite of a certain jollity and bonhommie [sic], he was a harsh and violent man... [A] persevering hard working toiler in his own line, but ever as unfeeling for those about him... He owed everything to his excellent wife,—& to myself, without whose help in drawing he had done nothing." A sad coda to a life of true accomplishment, shadowed only by the need to be seen as an artistic genius, when being business genius was enough.__________